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Benedict XVI biographer pushes back on Pope Francis’ claim they had a ‘cordial relationship’

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Peter Seewald slammed Pope Francis’ characterization of Benedict XVI as a ‘transitional pope’ and said that Francis has sought throughout his papacy ‘to break away from the continuity of the popes’ and create ‘chaos.’


(LifeSiteNews) — Pope Benedict XVI’s biographer Peter Seewald has pushed back against Pope Francis’ claims that the two popes had a “cordial relationship” and that Benedict was a “transitional pope.”

In a recent interview with Katholische SonntagsZeitung of the Diocese of Regensburg (reprinted by Marco Tosatti), Seewald was asked about Francis’ recently published comments on his relationship with Pope Benedict in the book-length interview titled The Successor.

When asked by the interviewer why Francis had called Benedict a “transitional pope,” Seewald stated that “Francis always takes a two-pronged approach.”

“On the one hand, he praises Benedict, even describing him as a ‘great pope’ whose person and work would become more and more apparent from generation to generation, and on the other hand, he belittles him, calling him a grandfather, a fatherly friend or even a ‘transitional pope.’”

“From the very beginning, Bergoglio wanted to break away from the continuity of the popes, to challenge the traditional, to shake things up or simply to cause ‘chaos,’ as he says in the new book by Javier Martinez-Brocal,” Seewald continued.

“He describes traditional forms as a ‘nostalgic illness.’ He demonstratively showed who is the master of the house by abolishing Benedict’s liberalized approach to the Old Mass.”

“The Pope Emeritus found out about this from the newspaper. So much for the allegedly ‘cordial relationship’ between the two,” the papal biographer said.

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